A lesson from Shark Tank

In one of the episodes of Shark Tank Australia, Janine Allis, the founder of Boost Juice and investor of Shark Tank, said something that sticks with me as a business owner.

Watching Australian investors presenting and pitching their business ideas amazes me. We have so many great talents in this country it’s quite and inspiration to see solutions people came up with when presented with everyday challenges.

In one episode, Janine posed a question to an inventor that triggers some thoughts in my mind. The product pitched was not short of creativity, it’s a great concept and it’s already proven to deliver profits. But it’s no doubt that it’s a very competitive niche (health niche – losing weight and exercise). Her question was “Why you?”. Paraphrasing it in my own terms, she asked why should she invest with in that person.

Forwarding the same question to you & I: “WHY YOU?”. Why should people invest in your program? Why should your customer believe you’re the best for them? Why should they buy your products and services while there are others offering similar solutions to yours? Why should they hire you and not the company next door?

Is it enough to be BETTER? Or should you be DIFFERENT?

Think about what makes you unique, strengths and experiences you and your team bring to the table, the technologies that you are using, the number of years you’ve been in the business, the community involvement the company is involved with, and many more. Often than not it’s a simple thing.

In one of my articles on finding your unique edge, I wrote about honing your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) that sets you apart from your “competitors”. It’s one way of bringing your Uniqueness into the marketplace so you stand out from the rest.

Think about this, if your product/service is in the similar specifications as others, people will compare yours to the other products. But if you are different, then potential customers can’t possibly compare side by side. For example, I was comparing 2 organic sunscreen products last week, figuring out what’s the better deal and the ingredients in it. Because both have similar packaging (a tube of 150mL of similar marketing message e.g. organic, natural ingredients, no nasty chemicals, good for environment etc), it’s easy for me to compare which is cheaper. Imagine if the packaging were different e.g. different volume, one in tube and one in smaller tub, different unique message e.g. last longer in water – you get the idea, it’ll be harder for me to compare.

My take away from is, as Janine Allis said, don’t just be better. Be different.

So, what do you or business have that is different from others, one that sets you above your competitors?

Have a think and write down your comments below. I would like to hear your thoughts and thank you for reading my blog post.